The above text comes directly from President Obama’s first memoir, “Dreams From My Father” and recounts an incident which occurred while he was in middle school. When our president became the subject of taunts from his fellow classmates, he decided to shove a little girl named Coretta. Although he chronicles his feelings of regret, he never does not offer her an apology.
Now let us campare this to the Romney revelation of the day:
The Washington Post ran a story today entitled, “Mitt Romney’s prep school classmates recall pranks, but also troubling incidents”. In it, Jason Horowitz recounts the story of an “incident” involving Mitt Romney, a pair of scissors, and a forced haircut.
“Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.”
According to Horowitz the sources for this story were:
“The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be named. The men have differing political affiliations, although they mostly lean Democratic. Buford volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Seed, a registered independent, has served as a Republican county chairman in Michigan. All of them said that politics in no way colored their recollections.”
The circumstances of the two stories are different. Romney was in high school when the forced-haircut incident occurred, while Obama was a middle schooler when he shoved Coretta on the playground.
The Obama campaign and their lap-dog media buddies seem to want to equate what Romney did with the “School Ties” locker room fight between Matt Damon and Brendon Fraser. But the Romney incident sounds tame compared to oh I don’t know fraternity hazing. I am not excusing his behavior, but shouldn’t Obama’s admitted bullying also be examined?
Also, Romney, unlike Obama, has apologized;
“Back in high school, I did some dumb things, and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize for that,” Romney said in a live radio interview with Fox News Channel personality Brian Kilmeade. Romney added: “I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school, and some might have gone too far, and for that I apologize.” [WaPo “Romney apologizes for high school pranks that ‘might have gone too far”]
PR maverick Hilary Rosen couldn’t resist tweeting about the WaPo article. Below you will find the tweet she sent out, along with the follow up question I had for her. I find it frighteningly telling that she hasn’t responded to my inquiry.
Hi, @hilaryr care to comment on the passage in “Dreams From my Father” in which @BarackObama writes about bullying a girl in his class?
— Tracy Lee (@RememberComeNov) May 10, 2012
***Update***
A very special thank you to one of my heroes, the conservative #war-rior, Michelle Malkin.
Hilary Rosen Answers Michelle Malkin.
MT @RememberComeNov: Hi, @hilaryr care to comment on passage in “Dreams From my Father” in which @BarackObama writes about bullying a girl?
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 10, 2012
@hilaryr What exactly IS your point? Obama recounted bullying guilt to sell books but never apologized to his victim, by his own admission.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) May 10, 2012
A thank you to my fantastic twitter family! Especially these fine gentleman who made sure that my story got out quickly,
Hey Media, why don’t you talk about this? “Young Obama Bullied….A Girl” wp.me/prJHK-bJ#tlot #tcot #VetThePrez by @RememberComeNov
— el SOOPer (@SooperMexican) May 10, 2012
and @FoolishReporter
Young Obama bullied a girl! via @RememberComeNov , cc @brooksbayne @adamsbaldwin @michellemalkin thetalkofthetimes.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/oba…
— Greg (@FoolishReporter) May 10, 2012
Thanks to their efforts this happened;
Thank you Adam Baldwin!
In his own words: “Obama Bullied A Girl…” – thetalkofthetimes.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/oba… ~ (h/t @FoolishReporter) ~ #ObamaPranks ~ @derekahunter
— Adam Baldwin (@adamsbaldwin) May 10, 2012
Thank you David Burge!
The Obama campaign should probably read his autobiography before floating the next distraction. thetalkofthetimes.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/oba…
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 10, 2012
Thank you Jim Treacher!
.@hilaryr Obama shoves girls. thetalkofthetimes.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/oba… #ObamaShovesGirls #Coretta #PrayForCoretta
— Jim Treacher (@jtLOL) May 10, 2012
I would also like to thank everyone that linked to this piece, Jim Teacher, Sarah Hoyt, Twitchy, Jim Geraghty, Moe Lane, John Nolte, The Right Scoop,
And to everyone else that pushed this story #forward thank you!
The Talk of the Times 
Was Corretta white, white people are discriminated against in HI terribly. Was this a racial “hate crime” assault?
No Coretta was the only other black student in President Obama’s class.
OBviousLy, because Obama us mixed, he didn’t want others to associate him with black people
Strange that her name is the same as MLK’s wife, Coretta.
When the Black community focuses on this, they’ll drop him like a hot potato. Harry Belafonte and Cornell West already did.
tlc, in the text it also says she was plump and friendless. So Obama bullied an already suffering girl. Sexist, racist, obesist Obama? 😉
Did OBAMA plan this assault for a day, Collect scizzors and a bunch of friends. Hold the girl down and shave her head because she was plump and friendless!
Wow a middleschooler bows to peer pressure, a high schooler premeditates an act of shaving a student. I doubt that this is even a repeated act and can be classified as bullying.
But hey I guess America is just like Canada, isn’t it? (my point please compare apples with apples and stop obfuscating the issue.)
A) The Romney story was told by a Democratic attorney and everyone knows lawyers are self-less, always telling the truth.
B) Romney didn’t remember because it never happened but apologized like a man, whereas Obama made profit from it without apologizing.
C) The “victim’s” family never knew it happened and was furious at the media for victimizing and degrading the character of the deceased when he could not defend himself from said accusations.
D) The “victim’s” head wasn’t shaven.
E) Obama was an admitted junkie, Romney drinks chocolate milk as his victory drink.
F) You’re an idiot and the media is trying desperately to chastise a man with a squeaky clean record because Obama’s history is so awful they sealed it off and tried to cover up whatever was left.
Hmm, confused
Obama also sucker-punched a 7th grader and made him cry:
“…the first boy, in seventh grade, who called me a coon; his tears of surprise-“Why’dya do that?”-when I gave him a bloody nose.”
The poor kid obviously didn’t realize that “coon” was an offensive word. Instead of talking about how it made him feel, Obama immediately sucker punched the poor kid!
No apologies, no regrets. Just typical bully behavior.
You’re a boy in 7th grade.
Someone calls you a racial epithet.
Do you stand there and say “Gee, that hurt my feelings.”, or do you belt the little asshole?
Remember, you’re an 11-12 year old boy, not an adult.
You stand there are talk about your feelings and all the others call you “gutless”, “wimp”, and worse.
Obama did what had to be done in that particular situation.
And, how do you know “The poor kid (who insulted Obama) obviously didn’t realize that “coon” was an offensive word.”
Odds are he did…and didn’t think Obama would have the guts to hit him.
He was wrong.
Did it occour to you that this incident probably didn’t happen? After all, Obama admits to fabricating a lot of his book.
I think you were commenting on a different story. The one I’m talking about in this post, no one called him a racial epithet, and the “kid” that he pushed was the only other black student in his class, oh and she was a girl. Nice try though.
Is it likely that an 11 year old boy in Hawaii, fresh from Indonesia, would know what a “coon” was? I don’t think so. Is it likely a kid in Hawaii would use “coon” rather than a local term that meant something to him and his listener? I don’t think so either. Did anyone call Obama a “coon” or did Obama invent the incident to prove Jeremiah Wright’s, “Barack knows what it is to be called a nigger!” to be true? I submit that there is a lot of inventing and compositing going on in Obama’s fictional biography. What about transcripts and an explanation of how a guy who was stoned the last two years in high school graduated high school and made it into university.
“Coon” as a racial slur was known in the American Continental deep south. It was already a old epithet that had fallen into disuse by the time Obama was a schoolchild in Hawaii. I seriously doubt the term survived the trip across the ocean or that if it did it had much traction in the highly racially-heterogeneous Island society. ‘Coons are not indigenous to Hawaii, so the term would have no associations there. Occam’s razor suggests that this is another use of Obama’s autobiographer’s license to make stuff up. Possibly he bloodied a kid’s nose. Possibly the kid had said something to which Obama took offense. The only part of the story I find credible as you relate it is the “Why’d ya do that?” line. Obama had nothing to gain by reporting that he’d just punched a kid who had evidently meant him no offence. To some it may be a story of Obama defending his black roots — a redemption arc to follow the Coretta story perhaps — but to others its a portrait of a volatile kid with a chip on his shoulder, ready to take offence at the simplest thing.
Wouldn’t it be great of we could tweet this with the hashtag #Coretta and get it to trend nationally? I’m doing my best! Retweeted thrice so far.
http://twitter.com/#!/annabellep/status/200654743964614656
He bullied someone named Coretta…??? That’s just like bullying Coretta Scott King and by extension the entire Civil Rights movement!!!!
Let us not forget, Obama bullies people now. He laughs at conservative questions, he mocks those who question him on pretty much anything. Biggest difference? Romney learned from his mistakes and Obama has not.
Romney should have been arrested and should have a criminal record for what he did. Absolutely hateful. There is no was to equate that with a shove on a middle school playground.
Then Obama should really have been arrested for punching a 7th grader. Where’s your sense of proportion? Right, sorry, you’re a progressive and see no sin except in conservatives.
Sense of proportion? Romney was 18. In the eyes of the law, he was an adult. He gathered a group of men, tackled another, and cut off his hair. Question…if your child had done this to another, what would you do? If it had been done to your child, what would you do?
Romney was 16. Obama should’ve been jailed for drug use. The time was 1960 when Romney “traumatized the teenager by allegedly cutting pieces of his peroxide-dyed bleach blonde hair.” Grow a pair. If this had happened to your father or grandfather, they’d tell you it was a common occurance. Teachers used to spank kids’ bare bottoms back then. How would you feel if that happened to your child in front of their peers? Just comparing apples to apples, you small-minded coward. Apparently you teeny-boppers have yet to realize this was mere child’s play for hazing a new kid half a century ago. Dealing with bullies helps a person grow and learn. It teaches you how to confront those who do wrong and how to overcome those who are weak in mind and strong in appearance. If you were bullied and never stood up to that bully, you missed out on an opportunity to show greatness and moral fiber. The confidence you gain from facing a problem head-on stays with you. Yet another reason we live in a disgusting law suit swamped nation is due to sad people like you. It used to take a community to raise a child. Now, children are raised by cowardice wimps like you who would rather make money from the situation than solve it in a proactive manner. You sicken me and do this nation a massive disservice.
Every offense to your dignity or suppression of your right to free expression is not a capital crime. A kid brings a toy gun or an aspirin to school and the next thing you know they’re solyent green. Kids do mean, stupid, careless, thoughtless, cruel and unconscionable things. The reason we don’t ruin them for it is because we’re (theoretically) wise enough to know that, at least for those with a conscience, this is how they learn.
And yes, I realize I’m wasting my time responding to you, because it isn’t really fear of bullies that motivates your opinion.
sounds to me like he and Coretta were both getting bullied by their fellow classmates
“Instead of talking about how it made him feel, Obama immediately sucker punched the poor kid!”
Yo yo he went all Tray-von on the mutha.
Explain it to me again as to which party has a war on women????
What Romney and his buddies did–tackling another student because he was “different,” holding him down on the ground, and cutting off his hair–is brutal and sadistic. It reveals a lot about his character, or should I say, lack of it.
Romney is still attacking and trying to hold down people he perceives as different. Nothing has changed.
Oh, but having a sudden personality change and attacking a child you were just playing with is not brutal & sadistic? Just to save your own butt? Srsly? Coretta was more a victim than Obama was. So he victimized a victim, one who was already alienated and ostracized by her own account. Look it up. Joella Edwards is #Coretta and she remembers the school as diabolically racist; he doesn’t.
Oh, please. Stop exaggerating. Obama gave her a “slight shove,” he didn’t force her to the ground and cut her hair. Also, he was a middle-school kid, not an 18-year-old high school senior who knew better.
BTW, Mittens also showed his sadistic streak when he pretended to hold a door open for a teacher who had poor eyesight, and laughed when the teacher walked into it. Look it up.
A) No one ever said they tackled the kid.
B) No one ever said they cut “off” his hair. They allegedly cut pieces of his peroxide-dyed hair as told by a lawyer who’s an outspoken Democrat.
C) Brutal and sadistic. You’re too funny. Grasping at straws are we? It says more about the character a person who refuses to ever apologize for anything he’s ever done (Obama).
D) You’re a weak-minded fool and the fact you support Obama is appropriate to say the least.
Forcing someone to the ground isn’t tackling them?? Are you suggesting that the victim laid down on the ground voluntarily??
Cutting off pieces of someone’s hair ISN’T cutting off someone’s hair if the hair happens to be dyed? WTF??
Physically attacking someone just because they’re different isn’t sadistic??
Talk about being a weak-minded fool. You’re obviously a willfully ignorant Mittens apologist and Teabagger who’s been drinking way too much Faux News Kool-Aid.
It should be noted that the lapsed Republican the WaPo uses for political cover is probably not voting Republican either.
So, this is the first incident of Obama throwing another person under the bus to save himself?
Nicely put.
It seems that some of the “witnesses” to the hair incident weren’t really there and didn’t even know about the incident until the Washington Post brought it up. At least that is what one of them told ABC News.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/10/cracks-in-the-washington-post-story-on-romneys-pranks-emerge/
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/romney-friend-stu-white-says-campaign-wants-him-to-counter-prank-accusations/
The Washington Post never said that Stu White was present.
From the Post: “The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be named. The men have differing political affiliations, although they mostly lean Democratic. Buford volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Seed, a registered independent, has served as a Republican county chairman in Michigan. All of them said that politics in no way colored their recollections.”
Obama did what ANY boy that age (who still thinks girls are “icky”) would do and still does do in similar situations.
Still Voting For ‘Mitt Romney’?
How come the WaPo can talk about what Mitt Romney did 40 years ago in high school but can’t be bothered to ask Barack Obama about his administration running guns in Mexico?
Obama: slight shove on a playground
Romney: rounded up a posse,tackled a guy and cut his hair when he was 18.
And the two incidents are equal?
You people have the logic and reasoning skills of a turnip.
WAR ON WOMEN!
“Also, Romney, unlike Obama, has apologized”
Really? Romney said he didn’t remember the incident but gave a generic non-apology apology 8 years after the guy died.
Tempest in a teapot.
Cutting hair is not necessarily anti-gay. Clothing and hair styles among the males in traditional private schools at the time were generally constrained.
Short hair (and beards) for males of fighting age has been traditional almost universally.
Scripture seems to support masculine styles for males. Absaloms long hair was his undoing.
I had a much more severe haircut as a college freshman just for being a freshman. My prior haircut was normal. No gay habits or looks.
Mitt tried to cover up his bullying. Flip flop Mitt. Only when former classmates came forward did he somewhat apologize. Saying kids do dumb things isn’t really an apology. The victim of Mitt and the other who participated said he was affected by this 20 years later so don’t be so dismissive that this wasn’t a big deal.
I do believe Mitt is a bully. It’s my way or the highway unless it’s not a politically strong position to take then it’s shake the etch a sketch and flip flop. I’m not sure how you can see it otherwise. Mitt will take us down the same path that bush did and I think everyone can see what a crap hole mess he’s put us into.
Obama bullies defenseless girls and eats defenseless dogs.
Good, God. Another megadose of wingnut FAIL.
What was the resolution of the story between Obama and the young girl, Coretta?
And how come you haven’t added that part so that your readers can see the full context? Seems curiously absent.
Since we are talking high school, can we talk about Barack Obama’s high school years too…and his participation in “Big Comrades”?
How old was he?
Idiots.
You guys are trying way too hard. If you are defending Rmoney by accusing Obama of the same offense, you’ve already lost the argument. Enjoy the coming landslide.
Shocking! Now guess which one has apparently learned his lesson from his bullying?
TO: All
RE: Of What Sarah Hoyt Said & Naomi Schaefer Riley Blogged
So did ANYONE actually read Dreams From My Father? No, they didn’t, did they? — Sarah Hoyt
If Dreams From My Father had been a dissertation in Black Studies, Naomi would have dissed it like she did several other feeble works.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Obama has no ‘clothes’…..or certainly no academic cred.]
So a 1/2 white Obama bullied a black girl. War on women.
FedSec: Obama definitely learned his lesson as a 1/2 white young man bullyling a little black girl. He continues his bullying, he pays the little women less in his campaign, sidelines them in the White House.
It was all part of Obama’s plan to make her a socialist. I saw it on the teevee!
Maybe Coretta grew up to be a stay at home mom, so Ms. Rosen feels coretta deserved being shoved?
A slight shove by a 10 year old trying to get the girl to admit an accusation isn’t true is “bullying”? It was a lousy act but Obama went on to describe :
“For the rest of the afternoon, I was haunted by the look on Coretta’s face just before she had started to run: her disappointment, and the accusation. I wanted to explain to her somehow that it had been nothing personal; I’d just never had a girlfriend before and saw no particular need to have one now. But I didn’t even know if that was true. I knew only that it was too late for explanations, that somehow I’d been tested and found wanting; and whenever I snuck a glance at Coretta’s desk, I would see her with her head bent over her work, appearing as if nothing had happened, pulled into herself and asking no favors.
My act of betrayal bought me some room from the other children,
and like Coretta, I was mostly left alone. I made a few friends,
learned to speak less often in class, and managed to toss a wobbly
football around. But from that day forward, a part of me felt
trampled on, crushed, and I took refuge in the life that my grandparents led”
Maybe it’s just me but I find enormous difference in that account, written in 1994 – long before anyone could imagine the man as president and Romney’s basic denial claiming he doesn’t remember the incident but he remembers the victim wasn’t gay.
When does standing up for what you think is right make you a class bully? Seems the classmates who did nothing but watch are/were pansies then and bullies now. Grow up people, they were kids!!!
Oh ffs. We’re talking about a child vs an almost adult here.Not unlike the ridiculous dog flap- a child being fed dog while visiting indonesia VS an adult strapping a dog on the roof of a car for an extended trip.
Really folks?
I think the whole point of this story is how pointless it is – just like the Romney story. Merely distractions from the true issues facing our country.
Oh Blah Blah Blah. Let the first one of us who has no sin throw the first stone. Judge on merits not on the past. I am sure all of us were complete Angels when we were young. Ever heard of peer pressure? It is nothing new and was there then, now and always will be. How do these men treat people now? What do they believe in? Do they actually help people or do they want to be there for the fame and the power. Listen to what they are saying and close your eyes to all the pomp and flash. If they talk the talk – do they walk the walk? Hey I believe in what goes around comes around and the Lord Almighty. Goodness is obvious.
I’m reading DREAMS FROM MY FATHER now. Truly an excellent book.
tomorrow’s White House Briefing… “Coretta was an earlier compressed girlfriend”
lol, nice try Rightwingers. Look at the book. Obama is the first to own up to bad stuff he did. He doesn’t act like it never happened. That’s the difference. This is false equivalency BS and you know it.
And see how she recalls Obama. There is no bitterness or sense of injustice.
If you think you can make a big deal out of this, you are wrong, it will backfire.
…not to mention that this is nowhere close to the vicious, mean-spirited, narrow-mindedness of Mitt Romney’s attack. The fact that Mitt claims not to recall the incident either says that it was just one of many similarly awful things he has done, or it’s just a lie. If I did something that bad, damn sure I’d remember it.
I did some dumb stuff and as a kid, said some mean things and to this day the memories are vivid and much regretted(although nothing as bad as this). If I was called out, I’d own up and apologise unreservedly. I wouldn’t try to dismiss it as ‘a prank’ or give one of these bullshit ‘if I caused offense’ apologies. It should be pretty damn obvious that it was an offensive and despicable thing to do. How else is someone supposed to react to that?
He probably doesn’t remember it because it never happened the way the Democratic attorney tells the story..I bet you weren’t in high school in 1960 or else you’d realize it was common to haze the new kid and it was typically much worse than clipping a few hairs as Romney supposedly did. Why are we even bringing things up from half a century ago when Romney was 16? If anything, you Democrats should shut your mouth about the young life of presidential candidates. Obama’s high school and college days were absolutely riddled with hate filled activism and drug abuse. Romney’s record is spotless. I guess this is the best mud slinging you morons can do. It shows how desperate you are and it’s quite the fitting look if I do say so myself.
Amen Brother!!!
jesus christ. i hate election year.
And the world has forgotten that in the West Virginia Democratic Primary a convict from Texas got 40% of the vote to Obama’s 60%
Obama bullies pro-life Christians and health professionals.
He hasn’t given up those youthful propensities.
Imagine Obama’s impetus for pushing Coretta in grade school. All the other kids were connecting him to the only actual Black American in the class, and it disturbed him.
Well, there’s another point here. Obama’s bullying story is IN HIS OWN WORDS, in a book written to rocket him to stardom, and therefore is told in the most hagiographic style. Romney’s bullying story is told in an article spun against him IN THE THIRD PERSON, paraphrased as a composite story and with the clear intention to defame or delegitimize him. Let us always keep in mind whether a character witness is HOSTILE or FRIENDLY to the subject.
Where is the liberal media on this one!
How about when Obama he spent time smoking reefers with his drop-out school chums who spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl? So what’d HE do while they were all smoking reefers and getting stoned out of their brains, just sit by and watch? I don’t think so!!! It’s a brawl!!!
Obama: I discovered that it didn’t make any difference if you smoked reefers in the white class mates sparkling new van, or in the dorm room with some brother you’d met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids who had dropped out of school and now spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl.
So he shoves girls and joins in the brawl, but he’s still the darling of the liberals while they bash Romney for bullying?
Talk about a double standard!
Hmmm … Cracks in the Washington Post story on Romney’s ‘pranks’ emerge? http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/10/cracks-in-the-washington-post-story-on-romneys-pranks-emerge/
And the cry went up through Republican land, once again, his time had come… again… finally!
But this time he’s a trillionaire, and he’s buying every vote, vote Romney, get a check for $1 million, and nobody remembers that dog or that Homo anymore.
WILLARD….. Mitt….
Romney2024
Lots of luck losers! 🙂
PS Homophobic Gay bashing physically abusive bully insecure in his own masculinity, in other words, typically Republican. hahaha
Hee hee. Since Mormons don’t drink, perhaps this is the way Mitt decided to “tie one on”. I know a few dogs, and I can’t think of any that wouldn’t have loved the treatment. Better to tie your dog on top of the bus than to throw a young girl, the only other black person on the playground, under it to salvage your own precious ego.
Oh wow. You say he threw her even though the passage is in the article. It clearly says he gave her a slight shove. Were you there? Or are you illiterate? “to salvage your own precious ego.” Oh, Jesus, you’re talking about a child! Babies are about the most selfish beings on the planet, do you scorn them as well for their disgusting hubris and narcissism? Or do you write it off ’cause they’re babies and know no better?
And I would’ve loved to ride on the top of the car when I was a child, thank goodness the adults in charge had the common sense to veto that stupid idea. It doesn’t matter if the dog loved it, it’s dangerous, it’s your job to keep it safe. My rabbit loved sweets, I believe most of them do, too many and they could die from diarrhea.
The Obama administration is far and away desperate because Obama’s sins are destroying America. That is what this is all about – distraction from his infinitely greater evils than any president, ever. Get off your dime and support Romney before this country is destroyed by the most arrogant and treasonous personality in U.S. history. His treasonous crimes multiply every day he remains in office.
What treasonous crimes? Like bush jr. starting illegal wars that has sent us on the road to ruin? And then blame it on Obama. Not very smart.
In other non-news, young Obama was an Indonesian citizen and when did that change?
Evegypt: Obama admitting he “fabricated”a lot in his autiobigraphy is even more pathological than bullying a kid. That’s what kids do–even some who become model citizens. Creating a fictitious persona in an autographical work for political gain takes a special kind of weird–particularly when the author doesn’t acknowledge what is fact and what is fiction.
I guess once a bully always a bully, huh.
So Obama basically assaulted a girl, is unapologetic, and accuses Republicans of a War on Women? Sounds about right.
Given your fun logic, if you stole a cookie from the cookie jar, or a candy from the teacher’s desk, you should be forever exempt from being able to castigate criminals.
And it seems in the full context of the situation, he was apologetic, more than he needed to be in my opinion.
No. My logic falls along the lines of the pot calling the kettle black. The media ignores the fact that their guy, BO, actually assaulted some girl while making up a story about Romney bullying some kid. Work on your analogies, bro.
No moving the goalposts. You weren’t talking about the media, you were talking about Obama, which is where my comment was focused. The media ignores it because they likely realized a ‘cooties’ scuffle between 8 years old is inconsequential and boring. I can’t say the Romney story is made up, ’cause he never denied it happened, unless you count ‘I don’t remember’ as a denial, which I don’t.
And why do you insist on calling it an assault? It’s almost as melodramatic when people say they were ‘molested’ by the TSA, when they mean ‘searched.’
Holy cow liberals cannot be reasoned with. Romney and Obama both bullied a kid back in school but according to liberals, this only make Romney a bad person. SMH.
I don’t pigeonhole myself in arbitrary things terms like ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal.’
“Romney and Obama both bullied a kid back in school…”
And with no context, you are absolutely correct. With context you’d factor in the ages of the perpetrators and the victims, and the circumstance of each act. What they both did was wrong, except what Romney did was worse IMO. It was malicious, he was almost an adult, and worse of all, it was premeditated.
why is this an issue? isn’t there anything more important to talk about????
Good question Bob. If you don’t know why it’s an issue then you haven’t been paying attention. The issue is the Democrat/media complex’s obsession with 50=year-old stories about Romney and how this contrasts with completely ignoring similar aspects of Obama’s past. They gave him a pass in 2008 and conservatives did nothing. This year there is a determination to hold the Left accountable for their own standards.
So welcome to 2012. THIS time around every little smear, slander and spin produced by the so-called “objective” media about Romney will be answered in New Media with something just as silly, or just as incriminating, or just as old and mouldy, about Obama. This particular story isn’t really about Obama. Who hasn’t done dumb things in their childhood, like Obama’s hurtful action here or Romney’s “alleged” (and now essentially debunked) crime of coercive unlicensed hairstyling?
The point is the dual standard. Conservatives have been bullied by the press for too long now. It no longer has an effect, and we’re pushing back. The Left has already begun to whine and tut-tut. But it’s only their own standard they’re dealing with. Sure it’s childish. But it’s the childish game they started and are still trying to play.
With the colourful history this president has had and his long-term associations with low-lifes of all shades — we can easily produce 2 comparable or far more damaging “hits” for every attempted smear against squeaky-clean Romney.
We can go all the way to November with this game as long as the Left wants to play. But the Obama campaign is not THAT stupid, which is why you already see them trying to turn to actual issues, which is where Conservatives want the discourse in the first place. The Left is beginning to understand that they can’t win the politics-of-personal-destruction game this time around. But they also know that they can’t run on Obama’s record, which is why they’ve picked what may be the most trite slogan in history to frame their campaign: “Forward” (translation…don’t look in the rear-view-mirror … Please!)
You may have asked the question because you’re a Conservative wanting to get onto real issues. If so, have patience, we’re getting there. Or a Leftist complaining about the underhanded hit job. In this case, hold on to your seat, the ride is likely to get rougher for a while before it gets better, but don’t blame the conservative alternative media; turnabout is fair play.
So sick of hearing the ‘liberal media’ myth. Keep repeating it though and it will become true (in your mind).
Hey Fairbs (better than UNfair BS I guess 🙂 )
Guess you never heard of Journolist. If you can’t believe the evidence of your own eyes, check out the actual industry-wide “insider” collaborative network from back in 2008. Do some reading.
Or if you want something current, how about the MMfa weekly conference calls with the white house and the numerous statements by network execs who say, essentially, that they rely on MMfa for storyline and source materials.
It’s all there if you’ve got eyes to see.
MMfA is a progressive group by design. Does the fact that they speak with the White House seem odd to you (or outrageous)? And if it does why? Because it is counter to your ideas? Lots of people / groups speak to the White House. Where is the evidence that MMfA is feeding stories?
Try googling… ‘myth of liberal media bias’ and read some of the articles
When you say ‘liberal media’, are you saying that a certain opinion is pushed as fact or that the current discourse is determined by ‘liberals’ (or both possibly)? Why is it the ‘liberal’ media and not the progressive media? I still wholly believe that the term is a tool used to push a countering agenda. Pretty clever and effective, but still nonsense.
I was bullied throughout much of Middle and High School by a bunch of kids, several of whom have since come out as being gay. So was I a victim of “straight bashing”? And if so, where is my civil rights attorney, and multi billion dollar settlement from GLBT? Oh, wait… I was big enough to “get over it”. So hey, maybe Romney’s supposed “victims” should get over it too…
Kevin, unless they bullied you for being straight then you were not a victim of ‘straight bashing.’ Just like people who aren’t bullied for being gay are not being ‘gay bashed’ regardless of whatever the hyper-offended PC squad whine about. I don’t necessarily believe Romney picked on that boy because he was gay, I think he did so because the boy was being different and because he was ‘weak.’ Re: get over it. Well, I got over my bullying, however slight it was. Truth be told, I wasn’t really expecting to be harassed as an adult for being a ‘nerd.’ So with basically no apprehension into entering the ‘real world,’ I had no reason to not get over it.
Things are different for people who reasons for being bullied are permanent fixtures in their lives. i.e. their sexuality, race, physical/mental handicap. Seeing as there are adults who still proudly treat people with those fixtures like crap, I would wager it’s slightly harder for them to ‘get over it.’
The rest isn’t really aimed at you, just some meandering.
I don’t really understand how anyone could compare bullying from a high school senior to bullying from an 8 year old. I don’t understand how anyone could compare eating dog at 9 to strapping a dog to the roof of a car as an adult. I was ‘forced’ to eat many things as a child I refuse to eat now. (bologna, chitterlings, neck bone, veal, cauliflower, hot dogs, and so on)
Another issue is the “I do not recall” response. Saying you do not recall to an outright fabrication seems to be a really roundabout way of denial. For instance, if someone claimed I robbed a bank, I wouldn’t say “I don’t remember that taking place” I would say, “that’s not true.” Sure, I don’t remember because that never happened, but I think a normal person would simply affirm it as a lie.
Mitt Romney was 18, he was an adult when he bullied…by the mention of “jungle gym”, I think Obama was in elementary school
Why did you cut the story where you cut it? What were the next few paragraphs?
I always knew Obama’s win 4 years ago was one of those “I’m not racist, I voted Obama/ have black friends”. Hence all against him missed the fact 2 black kids where surrounded by cheering white kids (like yourselves right now), one of them panicked and pushed the other, becomes president but still has the integrity to expose himself without any pressure as he reflects in his memoir. Was Mitt surrounded by cheering black kids? Have you ever been surrounded by cheering black kids? Mitt apologized for inflicting terror under no duress. We still have a long way to go but the author of this piece (I won’t bother with the name), I fear nothing short an eye opening therapy will salvage any sense from such eye wide open ignorance. Mitt was at least a biological adult and his atrocity way more heinous but from where you stand naturally, its comparable.
Thank God nerds and Klaus.
I hope I’m not heading off topic here. I’m just trying to publish of some my considered London, I’ve been to london throughout Olympic time and i really experienced fantastic time there during 2012 Olympic.
London has generally experienced an great, substantial class escort solutions. Stunning and available women have generally been here. Within the final ten many years, however, London’s booming economic climate has drawn more and more more women from across the world. The growth from the European union particularly has drew a avalance of wonderful japanese towards the money of the United kingdom.The level of vibrant and productive males located in London has also altered the landscape. Their adore of good quality escort young ladies has produced a considerable necessity, one that the best escort companies are more than happy to meet. They’ve already attracted a huge selection of incredible young women to function as escorts in London. Times have never been greater for them. Escorts Most people who’re searching for companionship today, wish to see a photograph from the individual with whom they will reveal this companionship prior to meeting them. This really is where the internet comes in useful simply because it enables the London escort company to publish pictures from the escorts who’re available. Should you be looking for that very best escort in London, then you definitely need to visit a greater class escort agency within the city that’s prepared to complete this. They’ll concentrate on providing clients with only the best with regards to an escort in London.
Seriously guys? So Romney deliberately displays his homophobia, bullies a presumably gay person and then saying I’m sorry makes him right?
I don’t see the bullying in Obama’s story though. They didn’t connect, until they connected, they played, they laugh and he expected her to back him up. She didn’t, he gave her a slight shovel, he shouted asking for support, she didn’t respond. Mistake, but not bullying!
What both stories reflect are one scared boy, who felt isolated who probably liked the girl but was in that age where you don’t want to show feelings. The other story is of a boy who felt he had the right to debase another human being. Please don’t compare.
Silvia: Your comment only shows that you are misinformed or just spreading out the spin.
First, Obama himself saw that as bullying, as witnessed by his broader narrative. In context he is discussing what it meant to be the only … well, almost only … black person there, and he realised he had a moment in which it was necessary to identify with the white crowd or the black girl. He chose the white crowd — even though he was evidently positively predisposed toward her because of their shared “isolation” but avoided her for the same reason. The narrative is explicitly about racial identification, and it makes it clear the he regarded acting out against the girl as a way of making clear that he didn’t identify with her. That is bullying with a racial motivation.
Now to be fair to Obama, this is part of a long redemptive narrative arc. He is talking about his “fall” to explain how he evolved through this dark period and gained more clarity and openness. Nobody is saying that it is not. But as a singular event, like the Romney event, it stands alone for what it is.
In Obama’s case the narrative is first-person, and so one must remember that it is unlikely to cast him in a particularly negative light. In contrast, the only source of the Romney story, which stands alone in its character out of the many stories we have from his school days, is a hostile person who does not claim even to have been present — it is a third-person story related almost half a century after the purported event.
Romney does not try to turn it into anything positive. But he, and every person close to the story, including the family of the “victim” explicitly deny that the fellow was “a presumably gay person”. In fact, there isn’t a shred of evidence to that effect, and plenty of evidence against it. Those who attended this school say, however, that it is quite plausible that a prefect might have been involved in coercive behavior concerning the school dress or hair code; such behavior was normative. As described (by a hostile witness) the manner in which this was done strikes us as excessive and “bullying”, but all that it implies is that he misbehaved at least once and was overly zealous about the private school’s rules. At least half of this is consistent with what is constantly related about him by his peers from back then: He was a very upright goody-two-shoes sort. But there is zero evidence that he displayed bigoted or group-identification-motivated behavior like Obama’s confessed deed. In fact, for Obama it has been a life-long struggle, and he STILL displays identity politics in his thinking and behavior, in practically every public appearance he makes.
Both “stories” are about group identification and identity politics, and “bullying” in that context. Only in one story that element is clearly true because of who relates it; in the other story it is highly suspect. In one story the behavior in question is manifest in many ways today in that person’s life. In the other there is no evidence of it whatsoever in the person’s behavior.
No matter how you try to explain away or obfuscate Romney’s behavior, most people realize that Romney is a bully (or at least displays bullying behavior). I look at these two examples and see Romneys reaction as denial and if I was there (not saying that I was) oh well I was a kid (which isn’t a bad defense, but a SINCERE apology would be in order). Obama’s reaction on the other hand is reflection and learning which I believe makes you grow as a human being. Romney has a very pompous attitude and acts if he’s always right. This comes across as bullying to a lot of people. He doesn’t care to understand your opinion, he tells you how it is or how it’s going to be. People may consider this leadership, but I don’t.
Sorry (well-named) Fair BS. I was being polite in unwinding the whole business about the Romney story above. But apparently I need a 2×4 here, so let’s be a bit more direct:
The story is a third-person, uncorroborated smear by someone hostile to the Governor. It is contradicted by every extant witness directly connected to Romney or this purported victim at the time. It deals with events half a century away, and does not fit into any observable pattern in Romney’s life or character. Apparently in your view Romney’s ideological opponents can pull whatever cockamamy twaddle they like out of their #$$ and you’ll regard it as gospel truth. Give me a break.
Even if — IF — there were something to this story, it begs the question: “Is that all you’ve got?” In contrast, the Obama story is just one example in a long litany. There are whole books documenting his bullying race-and-class-conscious behaviour. Only one of these men is seen to regularly engage in continual identity politics. And he does it in spades. Continually. And because of his unique position of power, using his “bully pulpit” for GENUINE identity-class bullying behaviour, he has seriously damaged the fabric of American society since 2008. He is tearing this country apart in his quest to maintain his grasp on political power. And you obsess over a 50-year-old hearsay account about a challenger who is a genuine moderate (As Bill Clinton forcefully argued in his speech yesterday)? I think you’re smoking too much choom.
‘Four of the five witnesses to the forcible haircut cited by the Post are on the record, by name, and remember it well. ‘
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/omblog/post/mitt-romney-bullying-story-holds-up-to-scrutiny/2012/05/11/gIQALLVnIU_blog.html
But Romney has no recollection. That’s amazing as it looks like he was the primary perpetrator.
Is that all I’ve got? Not in the least. There are many reasons I won’t be voting for Romney… Plan to repeal Affordable Healthcare Act, Flip Flops to get elected (etch-a-sketch), ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt’, lying during the debate, plan to return to bush / reagan trickle down economics that history shows don’t work, 47% comment and probably not for the reasons you think, using a dead American soldier to score political points, wanting to turn medicare into a voucher program, not explaining how he plans to cut 5T from the deficit (I won’t just trust him), his job performance as governor of MA, not coming clean with his taxes even though his Father did, ‘corporations are people friend’ comment, and of course most importantly he didn’t know better than to strap his dog in a car carrier to the top of his car during a long trip.
I’m not really sure where you’re going with the identity politics argument so I’m not going to comment on that. Maybe if you provide some examples.
ok,shoving girl in middle school is a lot more innocent than FORCIBLY CUTTING A PERSONS HAIR!
My readership is growing-slowly-but it puts
a smile on my face to know that someone out there is actually reading me.
You can create a blog with a unique name ( and website.
Remember you can use WordPress as a regular
website.
This really is as well useful info. I need to state I enjoy scanning this a great deal. It can help me personally to get better knowledge of about the subject. It is all fine and dandy written as well as printed. I’ll definitely look for this sort of happy therefore fascinating. Hopefully you could provide much more someday.
There is clearly a bundle to realize about this. I suppose you made some good points in features also. agekeeggkkdd
Mudbox is a software for 3D sculpting and painting which is developed kdakefkeggcd
you use disallowed a designer to make the style? Superb vocation! cfkdkkfeeged